


Regrets

by LillySteam44



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, it was supposed to be cute and I think I succeeded, this was a drabble expanded into a slightly longer drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 12:23:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18916912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillySteam44/pseuds/LillySteam44
Summary: Expanded from a drabble I wrote for tumblr. It's still vaguely drabble length but rewritten to be better.“I’m going to miss this place,” Gage admitted. He took one last look at Nuka-Town as it slid off the horizon in the distance. It was a godforsaken hellhole, but he’d miss it.“I won’t,” Nora said. She had her eyes trained on the monorail controls, though the system was in full autopilot mode. She refused to look at him and he could almost hear her unspoken question.





	Regrets

Porter Gage was never one to dwell on his regrets. He had more than his fair share of them, but he preferred to simply ignore those thoughts that made the long-healed wound under his eyepatch feel like it itched. There was just something about the new Overboss, a woman named Nora, that drew his mind towards the myriad mistakes in his past. He supposed it had far more to do with the massive and almost inescapable mistake that had been Colter than with Nora herself, though he had been vastly uncertain with the replacement. That also had nothing to do with Nora either, but Nisha had made it abundantly clear he would suffer for an exceedingly long time if things didn’t change quickly.

Though thoughts of Nora never made his wound itch. Within three months of the day she killed Colter, they had all five parks under raider control. The last park, Kiddie Kingdom, had taken the longest time, if only because they had to wait on a full shipment of Rad-X and Radaway. There was little chance they’d survive without them, but with the meds, they took the last park within 24 hours. Gage had felt like the king of the fucking world, if only for that night.

That night was also the night, probably woozy from too much Radaway, the Boss straddled his hips where he sat on the couch, pulled him towards her by his shoulders, and kissed him like it was the last thing she’d ever do. He found, as he slid his hands around her waist, that he didn’t want to push her away. He fell into her bed and it wouldn’t be the last time, as their relationship became less and less professional.

Still, three months out and he was more or less her stress relief after long strategy meetings with the gang bosses. He was happy to do it. It wasn’t like Gage was a man of soft feelings. He hadn’t worried about them before and it wasn’t like he had any ownership over Nora. Even if he wanted to, a woman like that couldn’t be owned. It was a good set up, and definitely one he was content with.

Then Nisha and her band of petty psychos took over the power plant. None of the Nuka-World raiders had set foot in the Commonwealth yet, but Nisha was long displeased with the fact the Disciples had gotten one of the five parks while the other gangs each got two. Nora tried to be fair as Overboss, but Nisha argued for more and more to make up for the slight in Nuka-World proper. Gage had expected a mutiny at some point. If it wasn’t the Disciples, it would be the Pack, where Mason was upset he couldn’t play with the cloning machine deep under Safari Adventure, or the Operators, where Mags didn’t care for the decimal point on her cut of the take, but he did figure it would wait until everyone had as much territory as they could get. It didn’t matter in the end. The Boss had never taken to those bloodsoaked freaks and the Pack and Operators were eager to bring their cut of the spoils from a third to a half, the Disciples didn’t stand a chance. He was confident all through the lower levels of the plant, until they got to the roof and the Boss took a shotgun blast of the side.

Savoy hadn’t been close enough to kill Nora, but Gage had been close enough to put a bullet in Savoy’s head with his rifle. Gage never expected the panic, the worry, that spread through his chest at that moment. He still had to keep a cool head. They still had Disciples to mop up and Mags and Mason would look to him as the Overboss’s second. He couldn’t be effective and worry about the Boss, so he grabbed the closest ally, a Pack animal Gage normally wouldn’t look twice at.

“You get the Overboss back to Nuka-Town,” he ordered. “She dies, you die.” That ensured the kid moved fast. With her safety taken care of, he could focus better. He found Dixie in his scope, the fancy one the boss has attached to his rifle after they took the Galatic Zone. Nisha was already down, though she took five Operators with her, but Dixie still held her own against a few Pack. She was distracted, though, so it was easy to line up the shot. She never saw it coming, when he finally pulled the trigger, and she went down too. All the Disciples fell just the same until all that was left to do was turn on the power to Nuka-World.

It felt empty without her there.

Without revenge to keep himself busy, the panic came back in full force. Gage tried to stay close to the clinic but the slave that played at doctor sent him away for making her nervous. He had to fight the way his temper rose; he needed Nora to live.

So he went back to Fizztop and paced. When the sun set, he climbed into the bed they shared most nights, but he couldn’t sleep. He must have at some point since he didn’t remember watching the sunrise, and yet the sun streaming into the patio now. He didn’t get out of bed though and only moved when he heard the elevator to the patio whirr to life.

When he saw Nora crest over the balcony wall, he almost smiled. Before he could breathe, she was on him. Before he could blink, she had a knife to his throat. Slower, other details popped out to him. She was covered in blood, far too much to be from her gunshot wound. The knife in her hand had been Nisha’s. He wasn’t sure where she’d gotten it from, but he knew even from the limited point of view he had on it.

“Well, you have my attention,” he said.

“Mags, Mason, William,” she said. “They’re all dead. You can bleed out like them, or come with me.”

“Now why in the hell would you do that?” he asked. “Why spare me? If you really wanted me dead, I would be already. What the fuck is going on?”

He flinched when Nora reached for his hand but allowed her to guide him to her stomach. That sure as hell answered nothing. Nora glanced down when he didn’t reply, but the gesture seemed nervous. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the Boss nervous before.

“It’s yours,” she said and everything clicked into place all at once. Raiders would only see pregnancy as a weakness, but Mags and Mason wouldn’t exactly let her walk away from this life. “So make your choice.”

A week ago, Gage wouldn’t have imagined leaving Nuka-World. He worked too hard for too long to let it go down the drain. Now, he didn’t need to think twice.

They took almost nothing when they snuck out of Nuka-Town and beelined for the monorail. It wasn’t the first time they’d left for the Commonwealth, for scouting settlements or gang jobs, but it would be the last time he’d ever seen Nuka-World.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Gage admitted. He took one last look at Nuka-Town as it slid off the horizon in the distance. It was a godforsaken hellhole, but he’d miss it.

“I won’t,” Nora said. She had her eyes trained on the monorail controls, though the system was in full autopilot mode. She refused to look at him and he could almost hear her unspoken question.

He slid his arm around her waist and rested his hand on her abdomen. She was too early along to show, especially with her combat armor on, but he liked knowing that child, her child, was his too.

No, he regretted a lot in his life, but Nora was not one of them.

“Wouldn’t go back for all the caps in Nuka-World,” was all he said as she melted in to him.


End file.
